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Paper short abstract

Smallholder farmers in the conflict-affected areas of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARRM) in the Philippines have learned photovoice as means to understand their own ecological environment and adaptive practices from the effects of climate change.

Paper long abstract

It is a common view that communities in post-conflict context face a huge challenge in capacitating individuals and groups to establish systems and structures that would allow them to access government services. In this article, we show that smallholder farmers of Cotabato City in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARRM) in the Philippines have learned the critical importance of collective participatory processes using photovoice as means to understand their own ecological environment and adaptive practices, particularly when asked about the future of their livelihood with their farmlands being constantly flooded from the effects of climate change. We explain that communities strengthen their awareness, agency and collective participation when their lived realities become shared sensing processes using visual documents that reflect on their landscapes, flood exposure, livelihood challenges, and coping strategies. We argue that collective meaning-making using an array of participatory methods that includes photovoice are likely to build community capacity to demand for actionable and relevant interventions from power bearers in the agricultural sector. In post-conflict contexts, so much demand and input conditions are missed when programs are delivered for efficiency purposes to avoid pockets of discontent. The images captured by farmers served as the visual narratives that enabled them to articulate systemic root causes of their farming issues and strengthened their confidence to identify priorities and engage government as co-designers of agricultural programs. In doing so, it challenges technocratic, top-down models, and offers a model of governance that centers ecological justice, climate resilience development, and local ownership.